As a hostage of the world’s strongest military, legal and economic power, he learned their tactics and strategy so well that he turned the world upside down.
Around 452 A.D. Attila and his Huns controlled three quarters of the then known world and were about to sack Eternal Rome. The Huns had moved from a rag tag collection of barbaric, nomadic tribes to a trained, disciplined and ferocious army. Many Romans believed they were unstoppable barbarians. Rome’s leader, Valentinian, ignoring the counsel of Aetius, the only Roman to have defeated Attila, sent not an army against him, but a stranger traveling with a few monks answering to the name of “Leo.”
Attila, atop his black charger Villam, met the old, white bearded man ambling toward him on a white steed. After their meeting, Attila turned his hordes back. Rome was spared. Pope Leo I became the world’s most successful negotiator. Warrior Attila had become Diplomat, and his stature shrunk not.
An empire known for its civilization and one known for
barbarism found a way to negotiate.
Doing so allowed their people to build upon a more civilized life.
Lacking the well-rounded insight of a Roman Court, the autocratic Hussein, is not
likely to negotiate out of the uncivilized mess he’s made. Saddam will not have the counsel of a
Valentinian or Leo. Long ago, he
eliminated them. And George is not likely to emulate Attila, the Diplomat, when
he sees Saddam hiding deadly Trojan Horses.
Like the Romans, from the poor citizens to the
well-dressed Republican Guards, Iraqis know the ferocity of the army camped
outside Baghdad. Hopefully, our Huns
are bombarding their chieftains with an unceasing array of communications,
reminding them that laying down their arms is the best way to come close to a
civilized people’s victory.
Attila assembled an army that terrified the world’s most powerful empire. In training his band of believers, one of the qualities instilled into his chieftains was empathy, an appreciation and sensitivity to the values, cultures, and traditions of others. When in vying for world dominance, Attila’s well-trained chieftains were forced to draw a line between sympathy and empathy, they drew it in favor of the Attilian nation with adroit diplomacy or battlefield action. Attila had learned such smart and enduring tactics from studying his long-standing enemy.
The Ambassadorial Bush mastered
empathetic diplomacy in leading a fractious tribal world more than his son has
thus far. One doesn’t become the Attila
or Caesar of the 21st century and largely ignore the Israeli
Palestinian cauldron seething in an economically unstable and narrow-mindedly
educated Middle East. A Caesar doesn’t
ignore the civilized world’s call for Kyoto Agreements to fight for the
environment, trash an international world court that could indict the likes of
Hussein for war crimes, refuse to engage in face to face diplomacy, and then
expect to later get the world’s support for war making. An Attilian or Roman nation, with economic
tentacles spread throughout the world, doesn’t pooh-pah the importance of
nation building. A farsighted leader
doesn’t ignore the world’s tribes who have malfunctioning legal, educational
and food systems, believing they will never affect his comfortable empire.
Roman leader Aetius defeated Attila by changing battlefield tactics to which Attila became accustomed. The loss drove Attila to train his chieftains to learn from the past and anticipate the future so that the nation could win their next battle.
There is no better prepared
military than America’s. It will use
tactics – from nano-robots, microwave explosions, drilling and cave shattering
bombs, lasered laptops – startling to the catapulting artillery and armor-wearing
soldiers of yore. Unfortunately,
America’s enemies are also adapting their deadly, revolutionary weapons and
Trojan Horse delivery systems from which oceans no longer protect us from the
unclear and present danger that could be the sum of all fears.
The Roman Empire survived for
about 500 years, the Attilian for well less than 100. Looming in the aftermath of this war is whose tactics will turn
the world upside down? Which clashing
tribes will learn the most about how to build enduring tribes, nations and
empire – or destroy the same? Who will
learn the most from whom? Who will pick
up the pieces?
Written March
16, 2003 as Iraq was within crosshairs
Dwayne
Hunn of Mill Valley sometimes muses about the state of the world and distant
relatives while ensconced in a comfortable empire.